Morning Routine
by Loner Faris
Summary: Anna Marie's mother, Raven, has an odd way of waking her on weekends. Then again, wouldn't any shape shifter? All fluff & love; may add another chapter later.
1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful morning in Caldecott County. Well, if you'd call it _morning_. The sun was only just creeping up above the horizon. Most of the birds in the small Mississippi community hadn't even begun to sing yet.  
And it was during this divine, breath-taking, picturesque, _ungodly hour_ that young Anna Marie started to wake. She didn't open her eyes at first because there was no reason to. In fact, how could there ever be a reason to do such a thing at an unwelcomed hour of the day? Yet Anna woke anyway, without any obvious disturbances in her still dark  & quiet room.  
As the girl's mind started to awaken with the rest of her, one thought slowly formed. _Why did I wake up so darn early?_ It was so strange to this normally heavy sleeper that she continued think this one thought over  & over. Not that she would've gotten up anyway, mind you.  
When sleep would not return & curiosity persisted, Anna Marie finally open her eyes. She found darkness. A pitch-black emptiness that was in the midst of giving way to a heavy grey that allowed surface to be seen without a single detail. She could not see the objects in her room, but rather feel them as one does walking in a familiar place with their eyes closed.  
There would normally not be anything remarkable to see in her mediocre room. The twin bed was in the middle of the room, with posters & hand-made drawings taped to the neutral colored walls, along with a wooden chair & desk banished to a corner far from the door & windows. The only thing a newcomer would take notice of would be the bedroom's slightly peculiar inhabitant.  
Anna Marie slowly started to rise in bed, lazily brushing her whitening bangs from her face before falling back down from the strain of her false start. It was strange that a young girl would start to loose the pigment in her glossy hair. So strange that Anna frequently checked & rechecked the progress nearly to the point of obsession.  
Despite her reluctance to get up, Anna _knew_ something had awoken her in this now grey morning. With great effort, albeit a mental one, she managed to turn on her side to face a window. Something from outside must have disturbed her. She closed her eyes once more, having given up on sleep, but unwilling to rise again.  
There was nothing but peaceful silence for several relished minutes before a minor change occurred. A small shift of the mattress that caught Anna's attention before being stubbornly ignored. The weight at the edge of her bed slowly, over the course of few minutes, worked it's way up the side of the bed before plopping down on the suddenly very alert Anna Marie.  
A roar & a scream with a pitch to shatter glass soon followed, for crouched atop of the young girl was a large, open mouth lion. His mane took up most of her sight, the part that wasn't focused on his gaping jaws. He drew back with a creepily human grin.  
Anna hesitated for a few heartbeats, hoping to hear them again. Slowly she moved her own mouth, without a sound, before finding the courage to venture, "Raven?"  
The grinning lion morphed into a full on laughing woman. A blue women with startlingly bright red hair. Anna Marie's amazement soon turned to anger. _"What was that for?"_  
Anna was practically screeching, which only fuelled the new woman's laughter. Finally regaining control of herself, she gazed at the peeved young girl. "Good morning, Sunshine," she greeted with sincere cheer.  
"What are ya doing?"  
"Waking my gorgeous, bed-head daughter so we can spend the whole day together," Raven beamed.  
Slowly Anna Marie slid out of bed & stared at the woman with an even stranger appearance than her own before stating, with a slight drawl, "Fahn, but ya know Ah hate it when ya wake meh lahk that."

 **Author's note: This was meant to be a** _ **really**_ **short one-shot. After a reviewer hoped for more in the future & getting a follower because I forgot to set this as complete, I decided to continue adding short stories of the morning lives of the ****Darkhölme family.**


	2. Chapter 2

Anna Marie was _not_ getting up early on her weekend to go to a second school  & sit in class for half of the day. She couldn't understand her parents' insistence on going to church. It may not actually be a school, but it sure felt like it to a small elementary student.  
A knock came at the door, & before 8 o'clock no less! Anna shrank deeper under her covers, hoping the aggressor wouldn't discover the opossum's trick. The driver-to-unwanted-places entered, unwilling to leave the girl under her blankets. Taking them of with a sigh that sounded more bored than irritated, her mother looked down at the curled up child.  
"Anna Marie," she began.  
"No!"  
"We do this every week."  
"Becawse ya don't _listen_."  
Anna waited, but nothing happened. She was not lifted over some high shoulder, no Sunday clothes were tossed her way, no further insistence that she get up. The tired mother only stood there & waited. It had happened before, but the elder's resolve was always stronger.  
Finally, her mother sat down at the edge of the bed. She closed her eyes & took a deep breath. What was typically not a good sign for the young heroine took a different direction. Anna's mother laid her back down on the rumbled blanket, opened her eyes again to look at the ceiling, & broke the silence.  
"I'm listening now. Anna Marie, why don't you want to go to church?"  
"It's a school."  
"A what?"  
"School."  
"How is going to church like school, Anna?"  
"Ya git up early & ya git drivin' teh some big building where ya sit down 'n' be quiet while everyone talks to ya, expecting ya teh learn somethin'. Ah can't even read!"  
To say her mother was shock was as much an understatement as saying the goldfish was just sleeping. Taking another deep breath, wondering why she needed so many of them in one morning, she asked the thing that truly baffled her.  
"Anna, you can read. You're very good, considering your..."  
She paused, not wanting to use the word at her lips. Calling your little girl _disadvantaged_ was not how she wanted to start her Sunday. Pausing to find the right words, if there could possibly be any, she was interrupted by a shaky voice.  
"But Ah cain't, Mama. I try teh read that book they keep giving us, but Ah cain't!"  
"Anna, baby, you don't have to. That's a... different reading level than kids your age are at. Look, would it help if I read some parts of it to you so you'd understand?"  
"Ah don't understand when they read it."  
"But if I..."  
Again, there were no words to convey to someone so young & confused what she could do. Anna Marie's mother wished she hadn't tried to get her daughter up without her usual backup. Anna was always a special case, any child is to their parents. But Anna wasn't the only one that was special.  
Thinking quickly for what felt like the first time that morning, the now energized mother bolted up off the bed & turned to face her daughter. The woman who stood there was gone in an instant, replaced by a handsome young man Anna had never seen before.  
"Hello, sweet angel of Eden, I am Adam," proclaimed the man. "I've lived in a wonderful garden since my creation by the hands of God."  
Anna giggled at the transformation & greeting. She's heard this story so many times, but she could never understand, never picture it all. Realization quickly spread across the girl's face. Her mom had done it! She'd figured it out, & Anna didn't even have to read the book.  
"My home was paradise, & I walked among angels like you," the gentleman continued with a little more than some grandeur. "But even in the company so divine, I grew lonely. So I prayed to my creator for someone like myself. He granted me this wish, making my wife, Eve."  
Now a women, but still not herself, she continued her tale. "After meeting my handsome & very masculine husband-"  
"Mama," Anna Marie complained, but with a grin to make any cat in Wonderland proud.  
"Okay, okay. But after spending so long in garden, I grew bored. It was paradise, but nothing happened! Now, I decided since nothing happened on it's own, I should do something new. Now there was this rule about- was it apples? Let's say apples. We couldn't pick them, but you still have to eat your fruits & vegetables. Anyway, I took an apple from an odd salesman."  
A snake soon appeared on Anna's lap to get a hug, much to her delight. Well, ignoring the vegetable rule. The serpent left & the man came back.  
"Yeah, so my wife brought back apples. I'd never had them before, but they were delicious! But we broke the rules, so God sent us to the corner. Well, down to Earth, but it felt like getting sent to the corner. After that, Eve & I stayed on Earth with all of our kids. We can go back if we become like we were before, good Samaritans."  
"Ya sure this is how it goes?"  
"I took liberties for my young audience."  
"Mum?"  
"Yes, sweetie?"  
"Do ya wanna go teh church so you can learn that story, too?"

 **Author's note: I had a different story up for this chapter, but it didn't live up to the quality standards I hold myself to. The only line I kept from it is the Wonderland one. Also, it was in no way my intention to offend anyone with the butchered Adam & Eve story, it was intended for comedic purposes only. The idea came from a review, so thanks!**


End file.
